LET NOTES

ENGLISH MAJORSHP

GREEK
MYTHOLOGY

-Miss Mavie
 GREEK MYTHOLOGY

Introduction & the Nature of Myth

Definitions
• Myth: comes from the Greek word mythos
o Used in stories primarily dealing with gods and humans’ relations with them
o Universal because we still talk about them today
• Legend (or Saga): a tale with a relationship to history; may be imaginative or fantastic, but has its roots
in historical facts
o Magical element that makes it mythology but added historical element to it
o Historical element of the Iliad: when the Greeks started to travel further with their
commercialism, maybe caused a war not due to a beautiful woman
• Folktales: stories of adventures of common “folk”, sometimes with fantastic creatures, and the
hero/heroine wins with a fantastic strategy. Tales follow typical motifs and the primary role is to teach
and justify cultural behavior
o Fairytale: a subcategory of folktale: usually short, has a moral and magical content
o Folktale: Cinderella Fairytale: little red riding hood
o Oldest folktale: Heracles

Types of mythical stories

• Creation stories: where did we come from? What do we do now that we are here? What happens after
we die?
• Etiological stories (from Greek word aitia, meaning causes): an explanation of a fact or custom; how
something originated; where it came from

Approaches to mythology: etiological, rational, metaphor, allegory, symbolic, historical (or merely
entertainment). A purpose: stories that comfort us in a terrifying and unpredictable world… explains the
unknown
• Euhemerism (i.e. rationalism): Euhemerus of Messene (300 BCE) wrote The Sacred Scripture
o Claimed that the gods were men deified for their great deeds, usually kings or some other
distinguished gentlemen
▪ We can rationalize the tales to figure out where they came from, for ex by saying that the
gods were kings
• Allegorical approach: the complete opposite of rationalization. This approach favors metaphorical
interpretation, that traditional tales hold some profound meaning. This story may turn into an allegory
(or sustained metaphor), where the details of the story are symbols of universal truths.
• Historical approach
o Walter Burkert said: Myth is a traditional tale with secondary, partial reference to something of
collective importance

Iconography is the containment of deeper meanings in simple representations. It makes use of symbolism to
generate narrative, which in turn develops a work's meaning.
Theogony
• The genealogy of birth of the gods
• Matriarchal religion/society
o Depicted by iconography, idols (procreative aspects of females enhanced) and in Hesiod’s
Theogony

Zeus and Memory (Mnemosyne -> Goddess of memory)

• Had an affair and she gave birth to 9 muses -> they were born in Pieria
o The 9 muses: inspiration for Hesiod (and all poets)
▪ Include Cleio, Euterpe, Thaleia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, Polyhymnia, Ourania
and Calliope, which is the most important one
• Calliope is the muse of Epic poetry and she holds a writing tablet
▪ Their mother is Mnemosyne (Memory)
▪ They dance around the god Apollo

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE WORLD (THEOGONY)

• Chaos (void/chasm) -> nothing that created something
o Gives rise to Gaia (Earth & female goddess of fertility), Eros (sexual love), Tartarus (depths of
Earth), Erebus (darkness of Tartarus), Nyx (night)
▪ Gaia is the original trickster goddess
▪ Eros is the generative force that allows Gaia’s divine conception; the generative force
that allows her to reproduce
• Was compared to God in the Book of Genesis
▪ Nyx is the personification of Night
• She is more psychological darkness than physical darkness
• The 3 Fates (aka the Moirai)
o They are the children of Nyx (Night)
o They are 3 old women
▪ Clotho (Spinner) -> will give life so determines when you are born
• Weaves the wool
▪ Lachesis (Apportioner) -> determines how long you live
• Extends the wool as long as she desires
▪ Atropos (Inflexible) -> determines when you die
• Cuts the string when she decides it’s time for you to die
o The Fates were created in these creation stories in order to explain the
randomness of life events (losing someone, good things happening to bad
people vs bad things happening to good people)
o When a hero tries to go against what is destined by the fates, consequences
arise
▪ Gaia’s fatherless children: Ouranos (sky), Mountains. Pontos (sea)
• The first generation
o Gaia and Ouranos had a sacred marriage (hieros gamos) and had
▪ The Hecatonchires (Hundred-Handers): Briareos, Cottos, Gyges
• They are strong and arrogant
 • They have 100 hands and 50 heads
▪ The Cyclopes (BSA assay): Brontes “thunder”, Steropes “lightning”, Arges “bright” ->
1 eye
• Arges gave Zeus thunder and made the thunderbolt
▪ Ouranos, afraid of being overpowered, shoved his kids (the Hecatonchires and the
Cyclopes) back into Gaia’s womb (into Tartarus -> gloomy place in the house of Hades)
and then he had more children with Gaia
• 12 titans: Iapetus, Cronos, Rhea (mother goddess of fertility & earth),
Hyperion, Oceanos, Coeus, Crius, Theia, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phobe, Tethys
o The castration of Ouranos -> Gaia was angry at Ouranos for throwing her children in Tartarus
and gave Cronos an adamantine sickle to cut Ouranos’ reproductive organs as he approached
Gaia, thereby maintaining the matriarchal society. The titans brought up their brothers who had
been thrown into Tartarus and gave power to Cronos.
▪ Ouranos’ semen that landed on Earth, in combination with blood, created the violent
creatures
• The Furies (Erinyes)
o Born from the drops of blood and semen coming from Ouranos’ genitals
that fell on Earth during his castration
o They are located in Tartarus
o They are Zeus’ henchmen so they are sent by Zeus to torment people
whenever people transgress Zeus’ rules
o They often hold torches and snakes -> frightening
• The Giants
• The Ash-tree nymphs
▪ Ouranos’ semen that fell into the ocean, in combination with foam, created
• Aphrodite -> beautiful divinity
o The castration of Ouranos by his son Cronos resulted in the birth of
Aphrodite -> something beautiful was born from something violent and
disgusting
o Her first approach to land was near Cythera, which is why she is also
called Cytherea, and then she floated to Cyprus where she was born,
which is why she is also called Cyprogenes. She is also called
Philommeides because of her love for sexual organs
o Goddess of love that uses Eros to re-enact love connections
o Often nude
o Charities (Graces) and Horae (Seasons) were Aphrodite’s retinues
(servants, attendants) and made clothing for her
▪ When Aphrodite emerged from the sea at Cyprus, the Horae
dressed her
Erebus and Nyx
• They had Aether (brightness) and Hemera (day)
 INCESTUOUS MATINGS OF THE TITANS PRODUCE COSMIC PROGENY
Oceanos (ocean) and Tethys
• They had the Oceanids
o They were 3000 boys and 3000 girls
▪ Styx was one of the Oceanid nymphs, one of the 3000 daughters, the goddess of the River
Styx. She, along with her children, supported Zeus in the Titanomachy, where she was
the first to rush to his aid.
o They represented springs, rivers, streams and have mythological personalities
▪ The girls are flirtatious, naughty and playful in a naïve way
▪ The river gods appear as old reclining men

Hyperion (god of the sun) and Theia

• They had Eos, Helios, Selene
o Helios: god of the sun
▪ He is depicted riding a chariot and he brings the sun over the heavens
▪ Helios + Clymene = Paethon (shining) who died while driving his father’s chariot
▪ Apollo, Hyperion & Helios merge in identities (share duties): god of the sun
o Selene: goddess of the moon
▪ Depicted with a crescent moon near her shoulders or on her head
▪ Selene + Zeus (son of Cronos) = Pandia
▪ Selene + Endymion
• Selene was driving her chariot with horses across the sky when she spotted a
mortal Shepherd Endymion
• He was taking a nap
• Selene fell in love with him and asked Zeus if he could grant him eternal youth
and life
• Zeus granted her wish and made him sleep for eternity; Zeus granted Endymion
perpetual sleep with perpetual youth
• Moral: not following duties (the moon wasn’t in the sky when it should have
been) leads to consequences (Zeus made her boyfriend forever asleep)
▪ Artemis & Selene also merge in identities: goddess of the moon; so the lover of
Endymion becomes Artemis
o Eos: goddess of the dawn
▪ Rosy-fingered or saffron-robed
▪ Eos + Ares
▪ Eos + Tithonus
• Similar storyline to Selene (her sister)
• Eos fell in love with Tithonus (the handsome youth of the Trojan royal horse) and
had his child
• She asked Zeus if he could grant him eternal life and he did; but he did not offer
him eternal youth so he continued to grow old and eventually turned into a
grasshopper
• Eos was disgusted so she left him because he got uglier (no longer fresh and
young, in contrast to the goddess of dawn that represents youth and freshness)
 • Eos is depicted descending from the sky and the Tithonus is depicted at the
bottom

Eris
• Goddess of Strife, Discord and Competition
o In Hesiod’s Works and Days, 2 different goddesses named Eris are distinguished and they
personify the 2 kinds of strife:
▪ Competition:
• Daughter of Nyx
o She was born before the other Strife goddess
• Good competition/strife where someone deserves what they have & work hard
▪ Conflict:
• Daughter of Zeus & Hera
• She favours war and fighting
• Bad competition/strife where someone has everything due to nepotism & does not
work hard
o Nepotism: the practice among those with power or influence of favouring
relatives or friends, especially by giving them jobs.

THE FIRST GENERATION OF OLYMPIAN GODS

Birth story of Olympian Gods
• Ouranos married Gaia and had the Hundred Handers, who had 100 hands and 50 heads
• They also had the Cyclopes, which had a single eye on their forehead
• Ouranos threw the Cyclopes and the Hundred Handers into Tartaros (a place in Hades)
• He then had more children with Gaia, the Titans, including Cronos
• Gaia was angry that Ouranos threw her children in Tartaros and persuaded the Titans to attack their
father. She gave an adamantine sickle to Cronos, who used this object to cut off his father’s genitals and
threw them into the sea
• After removing Ouranos from power, the Titans brought back their brothers from Tartaros and gave
power to Cronos
• Cronos then put the Hundred-Handers and Cyclopes back into Tartaros
• He then married Rhea
• Gaia and Ouranos told him in a prophecy that he would be deposed from power by one of his children so
he swallowed all his children
• Rhea was angry at what he did so she went to Mount X to give birth to Zeus
 o X = Mount Dicte or Mount Ida in Crete or Lyctos according to Hesiod or Mount Lykaion
• She then gave him to the Couretes/Corybantes and the Nymphs to raise him
• The nymphs raised him on the milk of Amaltheia (a goat)
• And the Couretes guarded him wearing armour, they would bang their shields with their spears so
Cronos would not hear the sounds of Zeus
• Rhea gave Cronos a wrapped stone to swallow as if it was their newborn child

Omphalos (Navel Stone)

• This is the stone that Rhea gave to Cronos pretending it was Zeus
• Zeus released 2 eagles from Mt Olympus and decided that wherever they met would be the center of his
oracular society
• It is now found in Delphi

Zeus and his birth story

• Zeus was born on Mount Dicte/Ida in Crete
• However, some believe he was born on Mount Lykaion
• He was taken care of by the Couretes/Corybantes and fed milk from the goat Amaltheia
• Zeus holds the thunderbolt and flashing light so he is known as the lord of lightning

ZEUS’ RISE TO POWER: THE CREATION OF THE MORTALS

The Titanomachy: “Battle of the Titans”, Zeus defeats his father Cronos -> 1st battle in Zeus’ rise to power
• When Zeus became an adult, he gave Cronos a drug to swallow, which forced him to vomit the stone
and the children he swallowed
• Along with them, Zeus fought the war against Cronos and the Titans
o Allies of Zeus: his brothers and sisters (Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon), the Cyclopes
and the Hecantochires
▪ Zeus summoned the gods to Mt. Olympus and told them that whoever fought with him
would be benefited
o Allies of Cronos: The Titans (except for Themis -> ally of Zeus)
o Zeus fought from Mt. Olympus, Cronos from Mt. Othrys
• They fought for 10 years when Gaia foretold that Zeus would win the war if he removed the Hundred-
Handers and Cyclopes from Tartaros and took them as allies
• He killed Campe, the person who was guarding them in Tartaros
• The Cyclopes gave
o Zeus thunder, lightning and the thunderbolt
o Hades a helmet
o Poseidon a Trident
• Armed with these weapons, they defeated the Titans and threw them into Tartaros (far from Earth) and
set the Hundred-Handers to guard them
• Zeus received power in the sky, Poseidon power in the sea and Plouton power in the house of Hades

Iapetus (Titan) and Clymene

• Gave birth to Prometheus, Epimetheus and Atlas
 o Atlas
▪ Atlas is the son of Iapetos and Clymene and is thus the brother of Prometheus
▪ Atlas is a Titan that sided with the Titans during the Titanomachy
• Prometheus and his mom Clymene sided with the Olympian gods
▪ After the gods won the war, Zeus condemned Atlas to stand at the western edge of
Gaia and hold up the sky on his shoulders

The Gigantomachy: “Battle of the Giants” -> 2nd battle in Zeus’ rise to power
• Gaia was mad about what happened to the Titans and gave birth to the Giants
• They had snakes as legs and long hair from their heads and chins
• They would hurl rocks and flaming trees into heaven
• It was prophesized that the gods could only win against the Giants if a mortal fought as their ally
• Gaia tried to form a magic plant that would prevent the Giants from dying but Zeus tells the moon not to
shine and gets the plant before she could
• Athena, the daughter of Zeus, then called Heracles to help them as an ally and they ended up winning
the war

Typhon and Zeus (Typhonomachy): “Battle of Typhon” -> 3rd battle to Zeus’ rise to power
• Typhon, also called Typhoios by Hesiod, was the son of Gaia and Tartarus. Gaia gave birth to him after
the Giants lost the war against the gods
• He is very strong and has a weird appearance (mix of man and beast)
• He is extremely tall (taller than all the mountains and his head often touched the stars)
• Lots of heads, hands and wings grew on him; 100 dragon heads stood out of his shoulders
• He had snakes growing out of his thighs
• He wanted to take over Zeus’ ruling and the 2nd generation of gods were too scared to go up against him
so they fled to Egypt by changing their appearance into animals
• Zeus and Athena were the only ones who fought against him
• Zeus hit him with a thunderbolt so he hid himself in the sea to put out the flame and flee. Zeus then
threw Mount Aetna on top of him (the biggest mountain)
o Zeus set Hephaistos (Hephaestus) on its peak to guard him
• Etiological myth: Mount Aetna on Sicily -> volcanic mountain because the fire-breathing monster was
defeated there by Zeus

How does Zeus differ from the other rulers?

• Zeus broke from the male pattern
o He uses diplomatic skills
o He enlists allies
▪ He does not use strength and violence like his father and grandfather did to overcome the
prophecy but rather uses allies, listens to the personification of intelligence (Gaia) and
releases the 100-handers and the Cyclopes
o He delegates authority: tells Athena to go get a mortal (Heracles)
o He uses tools: Cyclopes and 100-Handers make tools for him
• Cultural shift towards civilizing actions (law, justice, ritual sacrifice) over brutality
Titanomachy and Gigantomachy
• They are an allegorical interpretation of civilized vs uncivilized
o As a literary device, an allegory is a metaphor in which a character, place or event is used to
deliver a broader message about real-world issues and occurrences
• By moving from a matriarchal society (Gaia) to a patriarchal society (Zeus) -> become more civilized

CREATION OF MORTALS
Prometheus
• He is a Titan, an archetypal trickster, a civilizing hero
• Etiology for sacrifice
• He is the martyr of the humans, just like Jesus was
• He made humans from clay and Athena breathed life into them
• Gods and mortal humans were at Mecone trying to negotiate how the sacrificed animals should be
distributed among gods and men
o Prometheus slew a large ox, and divided it into two piles. In one pile, he put all the valuable meat
and most of the fat, skillfully covering it with the ox's grotesque stomach, while in the other pile,
he dressed up the bones artfully with shining fat. Prometheus then invited Zeus to choose
▪ Zeus chose the pile of bones. Hesiod describes Zeus as having seen through the trick,
realizing that in purposefully getting tricked he would have an excuse to vent his anger
on mortal humans
▪ As an act of revenge, Zeus hid fire from humans, leaving them cold and shivering at night
▪ Prometheus then stole it in a fennel stalk to give it to the mortals
▪ When Zeus realized that, he told Hephaistos to nail his body to Mount Caucasus in
Scythia where, each day, an eagle would fly down and eat lobes in his liver, which grew
back at night
• An allegory for justice
▪ Heracles later freed him
• Prometheus had a son Deucalion who married Pyrrha (daughter of Epimetheus + Pandora)

Civilization stories
• These are stories where society becomes more and more civilized
• For ex, when Prometheus gives the humans fire, they become more civilized and less barbaric

Pandora
• Pandora can be considered as Eve; she is the progenitor of the female race
• The gods all donated something to make the first woman, which is why she is called Pandora
o She was offered to Epimetheus as a gift from Zeus through Hermes
o Pandora then opened the lid of the jar and scattered miseries on all men on earth, leaving hope
under the lid of the jar
• Pandora was the punishment for mankind after Prometheus stole fire back for them
o Similar to story of Adam and Eve: creation, deceit, punishment, knowledge -> life is hard
 The 5 Ages of Man
• The Golden age
o This 1st generation was created by the gods of Olympus
o They lived when Cronos was the king of the sky
o They lived like gods and never grew old
o They then died and turned into spirits and went to live on the isle of the blessed
o Ended with Prometheus stealing fire
• The Silver age
o This 2nd generation was created by the gods of Olympus
o They were not as good as the first generation
o Considered baby adults
o They lived under the rule of Zeus
o They refused to worship the gods so Zeus destroyed their generation
o They turned into spirits when they died
• The Bronze age
o This 3rd generation was created by Zeus out of the ash tree
o They were monstrous and strong because all they cared about was fighting and war
o Bronze age because their armor and homes were forged from bronze
o They killed each other off with their own hands and went down to Hades
o This generation ended with the flood of Deucalion
o Cause of the flood: transgression of Lycaion (king of Arcadia) against Zeus
▪ When Zeus wished to wipe out the bronze race, Deucalion built an ark and boarded it
with Pyrrha. Zeus flooded most of Greece and their bodies ended up with Hades
▪ Deucalion and Pyrrha survived. Zeus sent Hermes to Deucalion and asked him to choose
whatever he wanted. Deucalion chose to have people
• Deucalion threw rocks -> they became men
• Pyrrha threw rocks -> they became women
• The Heroic age
o This 4th generation was created by Zeus
o Important age for Greek mythology
o They were more just and noble, the race of Heroes that died fighting in great wars
o They were the heroes who fought in Thebes and Troy
o When the heroes died, they went to Elysian fields where Cronos is their ruler
o When they died, Zeus granted them a life apart from mortals and immortals, free of trouble, at
the ends of the Earth (where Cronos is their king)
• The Iron age (modern humanity)
o This is the age that Hesiod is in
o This age is filled with trouble and envy
o The gods send terrible pain and vexation
o Brothers fight and children dishonor their parents; no one gets along
o They keep their praise for the wrongdoer

Lycaion and Zeus

• Lycaion (king of Arcadia) tried to test Zeus’ omniscience by feeding him the flesh of his own son, in
order to see if Zeus was all knowing
 • As a consequence, Zeus turned Lycaion into a wolf
• He triggered Zeus so much that he sent a flood to wipe out the Bronze age
o The transgression of Lycaion, king of Arcadia, against Zeus -> flood

Deucalion and Pyrrha

• Deucalion is Prometheus’ son and he married Pyrrha, the daughter of Pandora and Epimetheus
• Deucalion and Pyrrha had a son-> Hellen “Hellenes”
• When Zeus wanted to wipe out the Bronze race, he told Deucalion to build an ark and board it with
Pyrrha
• Zeus poured rain from heaven and flooded most of Greece
• Deucalion and Pyrrha were carried across the sea for 9 days until they landed on Mount Parnassos
o They then disembarked and sacrificed to Zeus
o Zeus was happy and sent Hermes to Deucalion to give him whatever he wanted
o Deucalion chose to have people. At Zeus’ direction, the rocks that Deucalion threw over his head
became men and the ones that Pyrrha threw over her head became women

Cross-cultural reference to the Flood in Genesis

• In the Book of Genesis (Noah’s Arch)
• Epic of Gilgamesh (Utnapishtim character)
• Noah, Deucalion, Utnapishtim are all similar characters
• Seems to have happened since it is found in multiple stories in history: transgression, punishment, flood,
sacrifice & prayer, prosperity; Man is created in the image of God
• All of them brought 2 animals with them
o Actually, Noah was told by God to bring a male and female of each kind of animal with him

The divine hierarchy (top to bottom) -> polytheistic religion

• Zeus
• Olympian gods
• Other gods/goddesses
• Demigods/heroes
• Other spirits that animate nature (nymphs, oceanids, river gods, etc)
• Fantastic, strange, scary creatures

The nature of gods

• They are anthropomorphic
o Gives the Greeks a sense of idealism in the face of realistic pessimism
• Some gods live on Mount Olympus and they are called Olympians
• Other gods live in the Underworld, they are Cthonian gods
o Cthonian -> of the earth
o Can also be called cthonian heroes
• Gods have ichor in their body instead of blood
o Ichor: fluid that flows like blood in the veins of the gods
• They drink nectar and ambrosia
Xenophanes
• Does not believe that gods should be anthropomorphic since they should be better than us and be put on
a pedestal
• Homer and Hesiod ascribed to the gods all things that evoke reproach, blame, theft, adultery and mutual
deception (“life is hard”)
• Humans believed that gods had human characteristics (had clothing, voice and body like their own)
o Why anthropomorphic?
▪ A sense of idealistic optimism in the face of realistic pessimism
▪ Fate vs free will vs chance: if there is some kind of hope for us (not just gods making all
the decisions and setting out our fate), it gives us some sense that we have some control
over our life and can change it for the better
• If animals worshiped gods and could draw, they would make their bodies in accordance with the form
that they themselves possess
• Believes in monotheism
o God is unlike man: there is one god, greatest among gods and human beings, not at all like
mortals in form nor in mind
o God perceives everything: all of him sees, thinks and hears
o God sets everything in motion
o God is motionless: he always remains in the same place

Epicurus
• Does not understand why the gods represent our worst traits
• Does not believe that we should look to the God for happiness

Cleanthes
• Described Zeus as the most honoured of the immortals, the source of all things, directing all things
according to law, that he is able to make the uneven even and the disorderly orderly; he is an arbiter of
justice and punishes those that transgress his laws
• Stoic logos (reason): Zeus provided the power of speech to the mortals
• Myth simply as teaching tools
• Predetermined divine providence

The nature of Zeus as benefactor of mankind

• King of the upperworld
• Upholds highest moral values like justice
o He protects suppliants, imposes hospitality, upholds oaths
o Upholds what is right and just in an advanced civilization
• The myth of Prometheus and Zeus is an allegory for justice
o There were 3 different interpretations of that situation by 3 different philosophers (view ppt)
▪ Aeschylus: necessary punishment
▪ Lucian: moral arbitration (Prometheus’ punishment is discontinued)
▪ Plato: justice and shame -> political intelligence (distribution of capabilities)
 THE 2ND GENERATION OF OLYMPIAN GODS
• They are the children of Zeus
• Athena, Aphrodite (Homer), Ares, Artemis, Apollo, Hephaistos, Dionysos, (Hebe), (Eileithyuia), Hermes

Zeus’ children
• Zeus + Hera (hieros gamos) -> Ares, Hephaistos, (Hebe), (Eileithyuia)
• Zeus + Metis -> Athena
• Zeus + Leto -> Artemis, Apollo
• Zeus + Maia -> Hermes
• Zeus + Semele -> Dionysos
• Zeus + Dione -> Aphrodite (Homer- Iliad)

Zeus’ attributes
• Zeus the Stormbringer, the Cloud-gatherer, Panhellenios, Cronion (son of Cronos), the Savior, the
Guardian of Cities, the Protector of Guests, Protector of Suppliants
• Thunder & lightning, often about to hurl them
• King of the gods, bearded mature man, sitting on a throne
• Aegis -> his shield with protective powers made of goat skin
• Sacred bird: eagle
• Sacred tree: oak tree
• Kingship, Law (Themis), Justice (Dike)
• Defender of all that is right and just
• Patron of guests and strangers (Xenia)
• Important sanctuary at Olympia in the Peloponnese
• Temple of Zeus at Olympia -> panhellenic sanctuary
o This is where the Olympic games (founded by his son Heracles) occurred
o West pediment: competition for patronage
o East pediment: Apollo in the war between the Lapiths vs. the Centaurs
• Statue of Zeus
o One of the 7 wonders of the Ancient world, 42 feet tall
o Sculpted by Pheidias
o Material used: chryselephantine
o Around the base of the statue: Heracles’ labors
• Roman name: Jupiter or Jove

Zeus and Metis

• Metis was an Oceanid and was Zeus’ first wife
• Gaia told Zeus about the prophecy that, after having the daughter she was pregnant with, she would have
a son that would overthrow him
• Zeus, who was scared, swallowed Metis, while she was pregnant with Athena
o When he swallowed her, he gains the intelligent aspect that the male figure was lacking
• When it came time for birth, Prometheus struck Zeus’ head with an axe and Athena, who was already
dressed for battle, was born from his head
Hera
• Epithet: Ox-Eyed, white-armed
• Goddess of Marriage (especially morality), childbirth and women’s fertility
• Sacred bird: peacock
• Matronly appearance, has a crown and sceptre
• She is the wife of Zeus
• Important sanctuary in Argos, Peloponnese
• Roman name: Juno

Zeus and Io
• Zeus comes to Io in the form of a cloud
• Zeus seduced Io when she was serving as a priestess of Hera. When he was caught, he turned Io into a
white cow. Hera then asked Zeus for the cow and set the all-seeing Argos to guard her. Argos tied the
cow to an olive tree in Myceneans
o Argos is also called Panoptes because he had 4-100 eyes so he was able to watch the cow even
when he was sleeping
• Zeus then ordered Hermes to steal the cows
• Hermes killed Argos by throwing a stone at him, which is why he is called Argeiphontes (Argos’ slayer)
o Alternative story: Hermes plays a tune for Argos, which puts him to sleep, and then kills him
• Hera sent a fly that would annoy the cow and make her keep wandering
• The cow then crosses to Egypt and turned into a woman again where she had Epaphos, who was the son
of Zeus
• Hera then asked the Couretes to kidnap him and they did
• Zeus then discovered that they kidnapped him and killed the Couretes
• Io went to look for her son in Egypt and found him. She married Telegonos, the king of the Egyptians
• Etiology for eyes on male peacock’s tail, Hera’s spirit animal: when Argos died, she put his eyes on the
tail of the peacock
• 2 etiologies associated with Io’s wanderings: Ionian Sea, Bosporus

Zeus and Europa

• Europa is another one of Zeus’ affairs
• She is a Phoenician woman from Tyre and a descendent of Io
• She is the mother of Sarpedon, Minos, Rhadamanthys
• Zeus assumes the form of a bull and with her on top of the bull, moves into the sea of Crete, where he
then turns back into his godlike form and has an affair with her
o Similar to book of revelations
• Palaephatus’ rationalization: a guy named Taurus kidnapped the girl and brought her to Crete

Zeus and Leda

• Zeus seduced Leda in the form of a swan
• That night, she also slept with her husband Tyndareus, King of Sparta
• She then laid 2 eggs
o One contained Zeus’ children: Polydeuces (Pollux) & Helen (important in the Iliad)
o Other one contained Tyndareus’ children: Castor & Clymnestra
Zeus and Semele
• Zeus fell in love with Semele (Cadmus’ daughter) and had an affair with her without Hera’s knowledge
o Cadmus’ daughters: Semele, Ino, Agave, Autonoe
▪ Ino = Leucothea in the Odyssey
• Semele was tricked by Hera. Zeus agreed to come to Semele the same way he would come to Hera
o He came to her on a chariot with lightning and thunder and hurled a thunderbolt
o Semele died from the fright. He then snatched their son from her stomach (he was 6 months in
her stomach) and sewed him into his thigh
• Semele’s sisters then spread the story that Semele was sleeping with a mortal man and faked her affair
with Zeus
• Zeus gave birth to Dionysos through his thigh by undoing the stitches (2nd time Zeus birthed a child)
o He was then given to Hermes, who brought him to Ino and Athamas and convinced them to raise
him as a girl
o Hera was furious that they agreed and casted madness upon them
o Athamas hunted down and killed their oldest son, Learchos, thinking that he was a deer
o Ino threw her son Melicertes into a boiling cauldron and then jumped into the sea with her son’s
corpse -> Ino is called Leucothea and her son is called Palaimon because they help those caught
in storms
• Zeus then changed Dionysos into a baby goat and opposed Hera’s anger. Hermes took him to some
Nymphs who lived in Nysa in Asia
o To thank them for raising him, he turned them into stars and called them the Hyades

Relationship between Zeus and Hera

• Very abusive
o Hephaistos tells his mother Hera not to go against Zeus as he is abusive
• They are distrustful of one another
• She is always jealous because he has affairs with other women

Zeus and Hera worship

• They are both worshiped at Olympia
• The Olympics were founded by Heracles

Zeus and Thetis

• Zeus received a prophecy that Thetis’ son will become greater than Zeus
• In order to ensure a mortal man is the father of her offspring, Zeus and Poseidon agree for her to marry
Paleus
• She gave birth to Achilles

Thetis, Hera and Zeus

• Achilles was mad at Agamemnon for stealing his girlfriend and does not want to fight in the war
• He asks his mom Thetis to ask Zeus to make the Greeks lose until Achilles gets the girl back
• She convinces Zeus and he ends up favoring the Trojans
• However, Hera discovers this and confronts Zeus, who became very abusive
• Hera then uses Aphrodite’s sash that has powers to seduce a man
 • Hera asks Hypnos to put Zeus to sleep until she meddles with the war
o Hypnos initially did not want to but ended up agreeing
• Hera goes to see Poseidon and asks him to intervene in the war
o Poseidon favors the Greeks
• Zeus wakes up, discovers that the Greeks are winning and is angry
• Zeus sends Iris, the messenger, to tell Poseidon to stop meddling and Poseidon ultimately agreed
• Zeus still seeks Hera’s council, for example, regarding Sarpedon, his son fighting in the Trojan war
o If he saves his life and changes his destiny, he allows the possibility for other gods to also
transgress his rules

Achilles and Priam

• Achilles killed 3 of Priam’s sons
o Priam: last king of Troy
• The death of Hector took a toll on Priam
• Achilles, who saw how much it broke Priam, gave back the corpse of his son
o Hypnos (Sleep), Thanatos (Death) and Hermes took away his corpse

Poseidon
• Epithets: Earth-shaker, Pelagaios, Asphalios, Hippios
o Shaker of the earth and of the sea, tamer of horses and saviour of ships
o Hippios because he is the inventor of horsemanship
• Children: Triton, Polyphemus, Theseus
• He is the god of the sea and earthquakes
• Animals: bulls and horses
• He is a mature bearded man and he holds a trident, dolphin at his feet
• He built the walls of Troy
• Poseidon is married to Amphirite, a Nereid, and together they have Triton
o Triton is a shape shifter and has 2 tails; he calls upon the creatures of the sea
o They have a similar relationship to Zeus and Hera, but less extreme, as he is not successful in
cheating on her
• Roman name: Neptune

Wrath of Poseidon in the Odyssey

• Poseidon was originally on the side of the Greeks during the Trojan war
• When the war ended, Odysseus was on his way back home
• Odysseus lands on the island of the Cyclops during his journey home from the Trojan War and, together
with some of his men, enters a cave filled with provisions. When the giant Polyphemus (Cyclops, the
son of Poseidon) returns home with his flocks, he blocks the entrance with a great stone and eats some
of the men. He leaves the cave to graze his sheep and, when he returns in the evening, Odysseus got
Polyphemus drunk and blinded him while he was sleeping
• Odysseus did not believe that he was the son of Poseidon
• Polyphemus asks his father to make sure Odysseus never reaches home
• Leucothea (Ino) disguises herself as a bird and she tells him how to save himself
o She tells him to leave his raft and she gives him an immortal veil to wrap around himself
Athena
• Virgin goddess
• She is the daughter of Zeus and Metis, so she has authority like her dad and intelligence like her mother
• Epithet: Athena Promachos -> means “who fights in the front”
• Goddess of war, craft, especially weaving
o She represents strategy on the battlefield, not brute force
• Protector of the army and saviour of cities
• She was born from Zeus’ head, all armed for war in shining golden armour
o She has a close connection to her dad
• Zeus granted to Athena alone of his daughters that she inherits all of her father’s powers
• Wisdom as practical knowledge
o Portrayed as a woman in full armour
o Patron of Athens (Parthenon -> at the top of the Acropolis, where she is worshiped), patron of
mortal heroes
▪ She is always on the battlefield, she cleans her horses, she protects the army and she is
known for her strength, not for an obsession with her appearance
• Symbols: the owl, the olive tree, the aegis (goat skin shield)
• Roman name: Minerva (signifies wisdom & chastity)

Tiresias and Athena

• Tiresias was the son of Athena’s favourite nymph, Chariclo
• Tiresias was thirsty and approached the fountain in which Athena and Chariclo were bathing
• He accidentally saw them bathing naked in a river
• Athena was embarrassed and blinded him because it is the unbending law of Cronos that any mortal that
looks upon a god or goddess naked without their will must suffer the consequences. Moreover, the fates
had already drawn his destiny and this could not be changed
• Tiresias’ blindness was his punishment for viewing Athena naked as she bathed
• Athena then pitied Chariclo so she compensates Tiresias by making him a prophet (ability to see the
future and deliver oracles) and giving him the ability to understand birds, which are holy. She also
grants him a staff that will direct his step and a life that will end in the distant future. Athena, therefore,
demonstrates compassion

Poseidon and Athena

• West Pediment: depicted the contest for patronage between Athena and Poseidon (sculptor: Pheidias)
• They were arguing regarding who would be the first person to found a city and they made Zeus decide
• Zeus decided that Athena should found the city because she planted the first olive tree in that land and
this would provide sustenance for the people, whereas Poseidon gave salt water, which destroys crops
and is thus only good for the sea
• Poseidon got angry and flooded the land with the sea, Zeus then ordered Hermes to prevent him from
doing so
• Athena then founded Athens (the 1st city built in that land) and became the patron of Athens
• Poseidon is worshiped in the Erechtheion -> where Athena planted the 1st olive tree and where Poseidon
hit the ground with his trident, making a salt water spring appear
Stages of Acropolis
• Stage 1: Mycenaean
o The Athenians were considered Autochthonous (were there from the beginning)
• Stage 2: Parthenon -> depiction of Athens’s role in the gigantomachy
o Athena Polias = Athena of the City
• Stage 3: Periclean building project
• Temple to Athena Nike
o This temple sits above the Mycenaean construction
o Supposedly housed a Nike Apteros (wingless)
▪ The Athena Nike statue's absence of wings led Athenians to call it Apteros Nike
▪ Nike = victory -> symbolic of the idea that victory in war would always be ensured by
Athena’s presence

Hephaistos
• God of fire including destructive fire and blacksmithing (and crafts in general)
• Alternative birth stories
o He is the son of Zeus and Hera
o Hera birthed him without the help of her husband Zeus, in spite of Zeus because he birthed
Athena from his head
▪ She was disgusted by his deformity so she tossed him from Olympus. He was
embarrassed and did not want to go back but Dionysos got him drunk and convinced him
to walk back up to Olympus
• The Lame God (because he was thrown from Olympus)
o Alternative stories for his fall from Olympus
▪ He was thrown off Mount Olympus when he was born for being deformed
▪ He was thrown off the balcony by Zeus after trying to protect his mother and ended up on
the island of Lemnos
• Zeus hung Hera from Olympus for sending a storm against Heracles when he was
sailing away after taking Troy. Zeus threw Hephaistos out of heaven for helping
Hera when she was in chains. Thetis saved Hephaistos after he fell on Lemnos
and became crippled in his legs
• Civilizing god
• Married to Aphrodite
o Union of 2 opposites: Aphrodite (representing beauty, love, sensuality) and Hephaistos
(representing deformity)
• Roman name: Vulcan (signifies passion)

Athena and Hephaistos

• Hephaistos and Athena taught crafts to men on earth
• Athena visits Hephaistos so he can blacksmith her some weapons
• But Hephaistos fell in love with Athena and wanted to seduce her
• Hephaistos made thunderbolts for Zeus and received a promise from Zeus that he could have whatever
he wanted and he wanted Athena as his wife
 • Zeus ordered Athena to keep her virginity and she ran away as he tried to rape her but his semen fell on
the earth (Gaia)
• Erichthonius was then born from the struggle between the 2 gods and Athena agreed to raise him in
secret (she was his foster mother)
o Eris -> struggle, competition, strife
o Chtonic -> of the earth
o Phthonos -> envy
• She put him in a box and gave it to the Cycropes, but they opened it
o Alternative: Athena set a snake to guard the box and gave it to the sisters Aglaurus and Pandora
• Erichthonius was the first to invent the chariot (joined a chariot and 4 horses together) and racetrack
• Allegorical interpretation: Minerva (wisdom, cleverness) and Vulcan (passion)
o Wisdom is able to overcome passion

Ares
• He is the son of Zeus and Hera
• God of combat, violence, war, bloodlust (he enjoys death during war, unlike Athena that does not like
death)
• Unlike Athena, he represents brute strength on the battlefield
• He infuses within humans the ability to survive on the battlefield
• Helper of the mortals, safety of cities, leader of just men, tyrannous to those that oppose him with force
• He perceived as a necessity during war but is feared so, since in HH he is depicted as an honoured god,
that HH was probably written much later
• Sacred animal: boar
• Helmeted Greek soldier
• Had Eros (cupid) with Aphrodite
o Alternative birth story is that Eros was born from Chaos
• Origins in Thrace
• Aphrodite is common cult partner
• Roman name: Mars

Ares, Aphrodite and Hephaistos: ancient love triangle

• Ares and Aphrodite were having an affair in the home of Hephaistos. They were caught in an invisible
but strong net and they were exposed to the gods of Olympus
• Ares -> strife; Aphrodite -> love
o From Ares and Aphrodite was born Harmony (Concord) -> union between 2 opposites (strife and
love) leads to harmony in nature
• Allegory about the art of metalwork: Hephaistos easily masters iron (Ares). When placed in fire, fire
softens the metal’s hardness. After the craftsman softens the iron with fire, he completes his work with
loving (Aphrodite) skill. Poseidon frees Ares from Hephaistos; iron placed in fire is then plunged into
water and its fieriness is quenched and stopped by water’s power.
• Aphrodite is always in power/control: feminist role model
• Gods are objectifying her – Ares is looking her from under the bed, the mirror shows her back to the
audience.
Where do the natures of Ares, Hephaistos and Aphrodite converge?
• Civilization, progress, Concord
• Ares: destroyer, while Hephaistos: builder

Aphrodite
• Goddess of love, sex, desire, fertility
• Called the Cyprian because she first stepped onto dry land on Cyprus
• Alternative birth stories
o She is born from the castration of Ouranos
o She is the daughter of Zeus and Dione (the feminine form of Zeus, “Dios”)
• Usually portrayed as nude or barely dressed
• Usually has a chariot pulled by birds like swans, doves, swallows, etc.
• Has a girdle, which contains all her powers
• Married to Hephaistos
• The Graces (Charities) and Seasons (Horae) are usually seen feeding her, bathing her and dressing her
o Graces represent youth, beauty and grace
o Seasons represent fertility of the earth
• Aphrodite is tied to the seasons of nature
• Her source of power, her weapon: grievous love (Eros) – also born at the start of the Universe – same
duality as Aphrodite – represents infection with love
• She can incite passion and uses her sexuality to manipulate and get what she wants
• Strikes her luring love into the hearts of all, ensuring that every species through desire perpetually
propagates itself
• Ritual of prostitution – cult, based on sexual nature
• The "Slipper Slapper Group”: Aphrodite, Eros and Pan
o Eros and Pan (half goat, half man) are children of Aphrodite
o Aphrodite holds a slipper in her hand to hit the satyr away, shows the playful nature of the satyr.
Aphrodite is also depicted as being beautiful, highly desirable and able to hold herself. She is not
ashamed and only revealing the parts that she wants us to see. She is in control except in the HH.
• Roman name: Venus

Dueling births signify her dueling nature

• Aphrodite Ourania (“Celestial Aphrodite”) who is born from Ouranos and the sea foam
o This ethereal Aphrodite represents spiritual love
• Aphrodite Pandemos (“Common Aphrodite”) who is born from Zeus and Dione
o This Aphrodite represents base, sexual love, physical satisfaction
o In HH – mother goddess – does not represent sexual love

Hephaistos and Aphrodite

• Union of polar opposites: Aphrodite (love, sensuality) and Hephaistos (deformity, intellect)
• Shows the duality in life
• Symbols: Aphrodite is the fire that drives Hephaistos (manifestation of craft/handiwork) to provide tools
for the humans
• Spiritual or physical union
Aphrodite and Anchises
• Aphrodite = mother goddess (similar to Gaia and Rheia, which have been the only other mother
goddesses seen until now)
• Anchises = vegetative god (similar to Ouranos and Cronos, who both get emasculated by their sons)
• Zeus induced Aphrodite to fall in love and sleep with Anchises, a mortal man from Troy, because Zeus
was mad at her for all the affairs she had induced upon the gods
o Aphrodite is unable to persuade 3 goddesses: Athena, Artemis and Hestia
• In order to seduce him, Aphrodite turns into a woman
• She then went to her homeland in Paphos, where the Graces bathed her and perfumed her
• She dressed up nicely into a princess from Phrygia
• She then went to Troy, where she met Anchises, who was herding his cattle at that time
• Anchises asked her whether she was a goddess and she told him she was not
o He is frightened by the fact that if a mortal man sleeps with a goddess, he becomes emasculated
• Falling in love with her right away, he sleeps with Aphrodite and she gave birth to 2 sons
• One day, she put back her normal clothes, but Anchises was terrified and begged the goddess to spare
his life
• Aphrodite agreed to spare him as long as he does not tell anyone he slept with the goddess and he
agreed. She told him that the Nymphs would take care of their son Aineias and that she will bring the
son to him when he is 5 years old. She tells him to tell any mortal that asks that the mother of his child is
a Nymph because Zeus would get angry if Anchises revealed his affair with the goddess
• However, he got drunk and he told his friends about his affair with the goddess
• Zeus was mad so he struck him with lightning

Aphrodite’s Children
• With Ares: Eros, (Phobos, Deimos, Harmonia)
o Eros means erotic love or desire (plural = erotes)
▪ The infection he spreads by his arrow is desire
▪ Roman name: cupid
o Phobos = fear, Deimos = panic, Harmonia = peace
• With Anchises: Aeneas, who is the founder of the Roman Race
• With Hermes: Hermaphroditus, (Priapus = god of fertility)
o Hermaphroditus
▪ Represents bisexuality, the sacred union of male and female (complexity of what love can
be)
▪ Has breasts and male genitalia
▪ There was a water nymph named Salmacis who fell in love with Hermaphroditus
▪ She wanted to seduce him but he rejected her
▪ When he thought she was gone, he entered her water spring, and she wrapped around him
and prayed to the gods for them to never be separated
▪ Their bodies then blended into a creature of both sexes
▪ He then placed a curse upon this pool: whoever enters the water would also be similarly
transformed (become a hermaphrodite)
Lucretius on the union of Aphrodite and Mars
• Lucretius says that, because of the affair Aphrodite had with Ares (Mars), the god of war, only
Aphrodite can bring peace to mortals from the union of Aphrodite and Ares
• Social and political ramifications: Aphrodite has a more positive impact on humanity; can bring peace,
love, disarming war/Ares
• Eros holds power in the heart of humans and gods

Lucretius on Venus as a generative force

• Epicurean Philosophy: the gods exist but they do not care about the mortals
• Lucretius tells us we should worship nature, like Aphrodite, not traditional religion
• He warns us about the dangers of religion -> religion can make people do bad things against their will
o Ex: Iphianassa (Iphigenia) at Aulis
▪ Iphigenia -> daughter of Agamemnon
▪ She must be sacrificed on an alter to Artemis in order for the Greeks to set sail to Troy
Plato’s Symposium
• Takes place at a party at the house of Agathon in Athens after he won his first tragedy
• They were debating the nature of love (Eros) and union
• Speech of Aristophanes: desire for companionship, one’s soul mate
• Speech of Socrates regarding the origin of the sexes
o Stems from a conversation with Diotima
o Spiritual Platonic love
o The male kind was offspring of the sun -> children of the Sun are male/male
o Female was offspring of the earth -> children of the Earth are female/female
o The combination of both genders was offspring of the moon -> children of the moon are
female/male
o They had great strength, power and ambitions. They made an attempt against the gods (tried to
make an ascent to heaven and attack the gods)
o Zeus met with the other gods and he decided to cut them in half, thereby allowing human beings
to exist and stop their misbehaving -> Zeus divided them as a punishment for their transgression
and arrogance (afraid of their power)
o Since their natural form had been cut in 2, each one searched for its own other half
▪ A man separated from a woman will run after women
▪ A man separated from a man will run after men
▪ A woman separated from a woman will run after women
o The navel was placed by Apollo as a reminder of the punishment
o Zeus brought about the relocation of the genitals, inventing interior reproduction, by the man in
the woman
o Love is the name for the pursuit of wholeness, for the desire to be complete
o Hephaistos offered to “repair” them, however the sad truth about humanity is that we can’t
become one again

Artemis and Apollo

• They are twin gods, they are children of Leto and are very close to their mother Leto
• Artemis was born first on Mt. Cynthus on Delos and she assisted her mother in giving birth to Apollo
 o Eileithyia (a nurse) assists Leto in Apollo’s birth in an alternative version of this story (HH)
• They are both archers
• Artemis is more connected to the wild woods and nature, whereas Apollo is more connected to the
countryside (agriculture, progress in civilization, becomes the leader of the choir of the muses)
Artemis
o Virgin goddess
o Potnia theron: Mistress of Animals or Mistress of Beasts
o Goddess of wild things, goddess of loud chase
o Protector of children
o Spends her time hunting
o She has a golden chariot
o She is the sister of Apollo
o Symbols: golden bow and crescent shaped moon
o Roman name: Diana
Apollo
o Learned to prophesy
o Sanctuary: Mt. Cynthus (his birthplace) and Delphi
Atalante, as a female hero
• She is closely compared to Artemis; she is also a virgin, she has a body with masculine traits
• Heroic patterns
o Unusual birth story: she was exposed by her father because he wanted a boy, born in Arcadia
o Childhood obstacles: she was nursed by a bear until she was found by some hunters that then
raised her
o Extraordinary abilities: when she hits puberty, everyone wanted her because she was known for
her fierce beauty, her speed, her athleticism but they were afraid of her
o Vanquishes monsters: she killed 2 centaurs when they tried having their way with her in a cave
o Protector of people: she helps kill a creature sent to destroy the crops and people
• Her father Iasion exposed her at birth because he wanted a boy instead of a girl
• The man who took her however, did not kill her. He put her next to a spring on Mt. Parthenion where
she should have been killed
• Instead, a she-bear deprived from her own cubs by hunters took her
• She drank the bear’s milk and was fed by the bear
• Hunters then kidnapped her, named her Atalante and raised her among them
• She loved her virginity and avoided the company of men, she longed for solitude
• Her home was on the highest peak in the Arcadian mountains, where there was a well-watered valley
• The vines in front of the cave were loaded with grape clusters and demonstrated Atalante’s
industriousness
• Her bed was made up of skins of the animals she caught, their meat was her food and she drank water
• She was trying to emulate Artemis, both in the way she dressed and in her desire to be a virgin forever
• She was swift-footed
• Her expression was fierce, like a man’s, because she had been nursed by a wild animal and because of
her exertions in the mountains
• She was beautiful and frightening
• A huntress
 • 2 Centaurs, Hylaios and Rhoicos, carried pinewood torches and were going to attack her so she shot
them with her bow and arrow

Calydonian Boar Hunt

• Althaia married Oineus, the king of Calydon, and had a son Meleager
• Unusual birth story: when Meleager was 7 days old, the Moirai arrived and told Althaia that he will die
when the log burning in the fireplace was burned so she took the log and put it into a chest
• When the annual crop began to grow, Oineus sacrificed fruits to all the gods, but forgot about Artemis
• This angered her so she sent a huge boar that would destroy their crop, livestock and people that met
with it as vengeance
• His father, Oineus, then said that whoever catches and kills the boar will get a prize (the head of the
Calydonian boar)
• The heroes then assembled and went to hunt
• Meleager wanted to have a child with Atalante so he forced them to go hunting with her
• Atalante shot the boar with her bow and hit it in the back (first wound), but Meleager killed it
• When Meleager received the prize, he gave it to Atalante
o However, his uncles (the sons of Thestios; the brothers of Althaia) were mad that he gave the
prize to a woman, as they thought it was disgraceful that a woman would get the prize if men
were present so they took it from her
o This angered Meleager so he killed his uncles and gave the prize back to Atalante
o Althaia, queen of Calydon, grieved over the death of her brothers and burned the log so her son
Meleager died

Catasterisms
• Etiology story for constellations
• Orion, the hunter
• Oinopion, king of Chios
• Merope, daughter of Oinopion
• Etiology for the constellation Scorpio
• Scorpio constellation is divided into 2 zodiac signs: 1 consists of claws and the other consists of the
body and the stinger
• Orion went to Chios and wanted to sleep with Merope. He asked her dad Oinopion, but he said no, got
him drunk, blinded him and had him dumped by the shore
• Orion went to Hephaistos’ forge, placed a boy on his shoulders and ordered him to guide him to where
the sun rises where he regained his sight after being completely healed by the solar brightness and set off
against Oinopion
• But Poseidon had Hephaistos build a house for Oinopion under the earth and Eos, who had fallen in love
with Orion, kidnapped him and brought him to Delos
• Etiology for the constellation Scorpio: Orion improperly assaulted Artemis while hunting so she sent a
scorpion in Chios to sting him and kill him - Eratosthenes
o Some say that Orion was killed by Artemis bc he challenged her to a discus contest, others say
that it was bc he tried to rape the virgin Opis
• Zeus placed the scorpion among the bright stars so that future generations could see its power and might
o Zeus loves what the scorpion represents so he turns him into a constellation
Actaion
• Son of Aristaios and Autonoe, who is a daughter of Cadmus
• He was raised by Cheiron and trained to be a hunter
• He was a follower of Artemis
• Allegory for crime & punishment
• He died because he was devoured by his dogs on Mount Citharion
o Some say that this was because Zeus was mad at Actaion because he courted Semele
o Others say that Actaion saw Artemis bathing. He had to be punished because he transgressed a
law of the gods. She changed his shape into a deer and sent madness upon the 50 dogs that
followed him. They did not recognize him, and they ate him. His dogs searched for their master
but couldn’t find him because they ate him. Cheiron made a sculpture of Actaion, which
appeased the dogs, as they thought they had found their master

Euripides
• His plays are not always a fan favorite because
o He has female protagonists, even though the theater was meant for a male audience
o He talks about the psychology of women and society
o He challenged the traditional way of thinking in his portrayals of mythological characters in his
plays
• Theater of Dionysus in Athens (in the city of Dionysia)
• Euripides’ Hippolytus
o Hippolytus: the chaste and misogynist
o Phaedra: the sensual
o Theseus: the distrustful
o Nurse: the confidante
o Chrorus of Trozen women: the sounding board
o Aphrodite (the sensual) and Artemis (the chase): the divide gamers
o Story
▪ Theseus, the king of Athens, had an affair with an Amazonian warrior queen and had
Hippolytus - union of civilized and uncivilized
▪ Hippolytus is disgusted by women and is only close to Artemis, as she is chaste, just like
him - goes to the woods to pray for her
▪ Hippolytus refuses to honor Aphrodite, which angers her and she seeks revenge. She
inducers desire in Phaedra (the wife of Theseus) by the power of her son Eros. Phaedra
falls madly in love with her stepson and she characterizes her state as a disease, whose
symptoms include delusion, delirium, exhaustion
▪ She is ashamed because she is married to the father of the man she is in love with so she
hangs herself in order to avoid disgrace. Bc Hippolytus treated her as an enemy when he
found out about this situation, she wrote a letter to Theseus claiming Hippolytus
attempted to sleep with her and she then hangs herself
▪ Theseus immediately believes Phaedra’s words, as the distrust of his son clouds his
judgement – biased logic
 ▪ Hippolytus tells his father that he is a follower of Artemis, that he is a virgin and has no
interest in women but Theseus does not believe him. He figures that if he doesn’t want
any other woman, it must be because he wants Phaedra
▪ Upon his father’s request, Hippolytus is exiled and ends up dying as a consequence of his
father’s prayers to Poseidon
▪ Artemis reveals the truth to Theseus in the end
▪ Moral of the story: find a common ground, good balance -> moderation is key

The Daughters of Cadmus, king of Thebes

• Agave
o Son: Pentheus (king of Thebes) -> dies when he is sacrifice to Dionysus
• Semele*
o Son: Dionysos
• Ino = Leucothea
o Son: Melicertes = Palaimon -> dies bc of Hera
• Autonoe
o Son = Actaion -> dies bc of Artemis
Dionysus
• He is the son of Zeus and Semele
o Zeus slept with Semele and when he came to her with his thunderbolt, she was burned to a crisp
o Zeus then put Dionysus in his thigh
• Etymology of name from Zeus and Mt. Nysa: his name is a combo of Zeus (Dios) and his childhood (he
was born on Mt. Nysa in Asia)
• He is the “male principle of fertility”
• God of wine, grapes, theater, madness – wild agriculture
• Depicted as young, as well as mature
• Symbology: ivy vines (around his head), grapes, figs, leopard skin (wild), phallus, bulls’ horns, chariot
pulled by leopards
• Carries a thyrsus (staff): staff with the ribbon around it and a pine cone at the top, helps him perform
miralces
• Carries a cantharos: cup used to hold wine, possibly for drinking or for ritual use or offerings
• Musical instruments (loud clanging sounds, tambourines, flutes)
• Sparagmos -> tearing apart of flesh
• Omophagia -> Eating raw meat
• Also called Dionysus Eleuthereos -> Dionysus the deliverer because he delivered Hephaistos back to
Mount Olympus
• The oldest sanctuary of Dionysus is beside the theater: 2 temples and 2 images of Dionysus
• When Hera threw Hephaistos when he was born, Dionysus got him drunk and brought him back to
heaven
• Roman: Bacchos or Liber (the free one)
• Quest
o Uphold the name of his mother who slept with Zeus
o Spread his god head and divinity, bc people do not believe him
The Nature of Dionysus
• He is called Father Liber (the free one) because the effect of wine liberates the men’s minds
• He conquered India because they are fond of wine
• He rides tigers because intoxication tames the wildest character (drunkenness always represses wildness)
• He is also called The Relaxer, as he provides relaxation
• He is depicted as a young man because intoxication is never mature
• He is also naked
• There are 4 kinds of intoxication
o Drunkenness/intoxication -> Ino (wine)
o Loss of Awareness -> Autonoe (not aware of herself)
o Sexual Appetite -> Semele (loose body)
▪ This is why she gave birth to Dionysus: bc intoxication is born from sexual appetite
▪ The looseness of her body allowed her to receive Zeus
o Madness -> Agave (bc in the Bacchae, she performs a ritual sparagmos and violently ripped her
son’s head off)
• Ecstasy -> standing outside one’s self
o Drunkenness, madness, prophetic trance
• Enthusiasm -> possessed by the god (he’s in you)
• Herm of Dionysus
o Head of Dionysus at the top and an erect penis in the center
o Originally boundary markers, used for travelers and for places of worship; protection and
warding off of evil
o Related to fertility rituals
• He is compared to Jesus
o Dionysus is on a leopard going east to west; Jesus moves on a donkey spreading His message
o Dionysus is born twice (once from Semele and once from Zeus’ thigh); Jesus is also born twice
(bc He is resurrected)
o Dionysus’ followers drink wine and eat raw flesh; Communion consists of drinking wine
(representing God’s blood) and eating the piece of bread (representing God’s flesh)
o Mausoleum of Santa Costanza in Rome: a merging of pagan and Christian iconography

Zeus’ affair with Semele and Dionysus’ drive to protect his godhead
• When Semele died, her sisters told everyone that she was lying, that she had actually slept with a mortal
man and was ashamed so she said she slept with Zeus instead, resulting in Zeus punishing her
• Hera was jealous because she felt threatened by Zeus’ relationship with Semele so she pursues
Dionysus. Zeus gives Dionysus to Hermes, who brought him to Ino (daughter of Cadmos) and Athamas
and convinced them to raise him as a girl
o Hera was furious that they agreed and casted madness upon them
o Athamas hunted down and killed their oldest son, Learchos, thinking that he was a deer
o Ino threw her son Melicertes into a boiling cauldron and jumped into the sea with his corpse ->
she is called Leucothea and her son is called Palaimon bc they help those caught in storms
• Zeus then changed Dionysus into a baby goat and opposed Hera’s anger. Hermes took him in the form
of a goat to some Nymphs who lived on Mt. Nysa in Asia
o He was raised as a girl to hide from Hera
 o To thank them for raising him, he turned them into stars and called them the Hyades
(constellation)
• Even in his earliest moments, there is an aspect of transformation (girl, goat)
• When he discovers that his godhead is being questioned, he decides to take on the quest of spreading his
worship for EAST to WEST (riding on his chariot pulled by leopards)
o Hera casts madness upon him, which makes him take way longer to travel through Egypt and get
to Thebes
• He needs to uphold his mother’s name, as well as his divinity
• He protects people that honor and believe in him and he is vengeful towards those that deny his godship
• He is a trickster character and is associated with theater
• He is able to perform miracles (extraordinary abilities)

The Minyades
• Daughters of Minyas
• Leucippe, Arsippe, Alcathoe did not understand why women from their city left and became Bacchae in
the mountains
• They were extremely critical of the other women
• Dionysus disguised himself as a girl and advised them not to neglect the rites of the god, but they didn’t
listen so he got angry and changed himself from a girl into a bull, a lion and then a leopard
• He also made nectar and milk come out of the daughters’ breasts
• The girls were scared
o Leucippe sacrificed her son Hippasos to Dionysus
o Then, they left the palace and became Bacchae in the mountains
o Hermes then touched them with his rod and transformed them into birds
▪ They became a bat, owl, and eagle
▪ They avoided the rays of the sun

Aspects of Dionysus’ Character

• Shape-shifting
• Cross-dressing
• Miracles
• Human sacrifice

Dionysus & the pirates

• He once appeared on the shore of a sea in the form of a young man
• Then, pirates that came sailing seized him and set him aboard their ship because they thought he was the
son of a king and they wanted a ransom
• The steersman told them he is a god and that they should let him go
• The others didn’t believe him and kept him on board so he made wine flow through the ship
• A vine stretched along the sail
• The god changed into a lion and seized the captain
• He set a bear at the other end of the ship
• The rest of the pirates jumped into the sea and he turned them into dolphins
o Represents the chaotic, wild, shape-shifting nature surrounding Dionysus
 • However, he took pity upon the steersman, preserved him and gave him all good fortune
o He saved the steersman because he believed in his godhead

Attendants of his rituals

• Bacchae or Maenads (mad women) or Bacchants (female)
o The Bacchae wander the mountains and love the wilderness bc wine is not produced in cities, but
in the countryside. They became destructive when Dionysos’ godhead was denied
• Satyrs (part male, part goat)
o The Satyrs are creatures that live in the woods, they are known to be randy, they chase after the
women and have intercourse with the Nymphs
• Silenos (older Satyr, tutor of Dionysus): old, fat, drunk, red face
• People sacrifice goats to him bc this animal has the reputation of being destructive to vines and figs
• Since wine is a stimulant to intercourse, some people sacrifice to Dionysus and Aphrodite jointly
• Bacchanalia or orgion “orgy”: when they are out in the woods and take part in the rituals celebrating
Dionysus; Satyrs chase after women

Dionysos and Ariadne

• Ariadne’s mother is Pasiphae and Ariadne’s sister is Phaedra (from Euripides’ Hippolytus)
• Pasiphae slept with a bull and gave birth to the Minotaur
• Ariadne fell in love with Theseus and helped him escape and kill the Minotaur
• Theseus then left her on the island of Naxos where Dionysus fell in love with her, married her and
protects her

Dionysus and theater

• A loss of personal identity, becoming someone you’re not
• Dionysiac rituals were the beginning of theater
• Associated with a loss of moral limitations
• A spiritual release
o Dionysus Liber = the free one -> spiritual release associated with intoxication, take on another
personality and act it out -> aspect of his nature
• Women would not partake, they would use masks
• The power of performance can affect the audience, induce them into some form of ecstasy and force
them to fall in love
• In Athens, there were tragedy and comedy competitions at the spring festival of Dionysus (in the city of
Dionysia) celebrating the end of dark months and the beginning of crop season
• Temple of Dionysus Eleuthereos (the Deliverer)
• Theater: all a loss of personal identify, becoming someone you’re not, associated with a loss of moral
limitations
• Constructive forces for humans: freedom of expression and play someone else

Dionysiac Dithyrambs & the Origins of Theater

• Consisted of 50 boys singing hymns to Dionysus
• Ancient Greek hymn sung and danced in honor of Dionysus
• Effigy: earliest dionysiac worship → mask, vines, clothes
 • Moved from festival city into the theater
• Celebration of a moment or wine and fertility
o Dressed up as Satyrs

Origins of Comedy & Phallic Processions

• Concept of fertility
• Told jokes at people’s expenses
• Verbal abuses: throwing insults back and forth as a form of celebration
• They would run around with giant penises
• Cornutus talks about the early worship: intoxication changes people – tame them
o The goat is randy and thus must be sacrificed to Dionysus
o Tragos: goat
o Oide: song

Satyr Plays
• Origins in
o Fertility ritual
o Apotropaic: type of magic intended to turn away harm or evil influences, as in deflecting
misfortune or averting the evil eye
• These plays involved slapstick humor that would bring some levity after the 3 dark plays/tragedies that
were presented beforehand
• Used to ward off evil by using obscenity
• Creative euphemism can be found in the plays
• Ex of one Satyr play (by Sophocles)
o Satyrs as Suitors: suitors presenting themselves and competing for the hand of a king’s (Oineus:
Calydonian king) daughter
o With bathroom humor → fart jokes

Euripides’ The Bacchae

• Setting: Thebes
• This story gives us a description of Dionysiac rituals
• Dionysus comes to Thebes angered by Theban impiety
o Semele’s sisters and nephew, Pentheus, were questioning Semele’s story
o His divinity was challenged
• Common theme: resistance to Dionysus’ worship
• Quest:
o Uphold Semele’s story
o Challenge the disbelievers of his godhead
• Stranger (aka Dionysus)
o Master of disguise
o Miracle-worker
o Trickster character
• Pentheus
o Obsession with the women on Mt. Cithaeron
 o Possessed by the god
▪ Cross-dressing: Dionysus gets into Pentheus’ mind and makes him dress as a woman
o Fantasy or self-revelation?
• Bacchae outline:
o Theban women are driven mad and go to mountains to worship Dionysus (maenads)
o Pentheus rejects Dionysus’ divinity
o Dionysus drives Pentheus mad and has him dress as a woman to go spy on Dionysus’
worshippers
o Pentheus is torn apart by his own mother, Agave, and her sister Ino
▪ They tear him apart -> sparagmas
▪ They eat his flesh -> omophagia
• When they eat the raw meat, it’s as if the god is within them
o Cadmus (former king of Thebes) and Tiresias (blind prophet) wanted Pentheus to worship
Dionysus bc they knew not honoring a god would lead to punishment
o The death of Pentheus was a punishment for his hubris (arrogance)
▪ The guy that doesn’t participate in this god’s rituals ends up being sacrificed to the god
himself
• Euripides as a source for elements of Bacchanal ritual
o Hymns singing about the maenads
o In the woods, loud music, miracles, ritual sparagmos, omophagia, serpents, wild animals

Orpheus Bakkikos Stone

• The inscription under this figure reads "Orpheus-Bakkikos," which means "Orpheus becomes a
Bacchoi." Orpheus was a great legendary prophet of Dionysus who was so respected that he was often
regarded as the godman himself.
• Beyond the appropriation of pagan iconography by Christianity, material culture shows a syncretism
• Disputed item – interpretation: owner was an Orphic initiate (Dionysus religion) – provides some
element of death, leads to a worship – elements of death and rebirth, similar to the passion of Christ

Divine vengeance as a story pattern

• Zeus and Lykaion: Zeus got rid of humanity when Lykaion transgressed Zeus’ law on hospitality
• Tiresias and Actaion looked upon chaste goddesses naked and were punished
o Tiresias looked upon Athena bathing and was blinded
o Actaion looked upon Artemis bathing and was eaten by his dogs
• Dionysus and the Minyades, the pirates, Pentheus
• Difference with Dionysus: positive aspect related to theater (he is involved in early theatrical
performance)
o Constructive side: freedom of expn and the ability to play someone else in theater

Demeter
• Daughter of Rhea and Cronos; sister of Zeus
• First generation of Olympian gods
• Goddess of grain and harvest, fertility, cycle of life and death
 o She is related to nature and, in comparison to Dionysus who represents the wild part of nature,
she represents the tamed part of nature
o She teaches the law of agriculture, she is the giver of much grain, she gives pleasing laws to
cities, she was the first to reap the wheat stalk and sacred sheaves of grain and the first to send
oxen to thresh it
o She keeps the city in harmony and prosperity and produces all things in abundance. She
nourishes cattle, produces fruit, crops, a harvest and nourishes peace
• Rites at Eleusis
• Symbology: wheat-sheaf, red poppy, often veiled, enthroned and/or with staff
o Red poppy = death and eternal sleep
• Demeter = Nicippe/Deo (Demeter in her ritual)
• Deo is only used in respect to her religious activities
• Demeter can say no to Zeus, which is not common
• She has a very close relationship with her daughter Persephone
• Roman: Ceres

Thesmophoria
• A festival of the goddess Demeter celebrated throughout the Greek world in autumn for the purpose of
promoting fertility
• It is only performed by women
• Pigs were sacrificed to her because they are close to agriculture
o Either toss a sacrificed pig or broken pig statues into a pit
• This festival brings prosperity to the people that worship her and safety to political body
• Not drinking, eating, bathing during the worship would bring them happiness in the long run

Demeter and Erysichthon

• Cautionary tale of Erysichthon in Callimachus’ Hymn to Demeter emphasizing Demeter’s fertility and
the importance of revering the gods
• Don’t mix up Erichthonius (Athena + Hephaistos) with Erysichthon
• There was a grove in Thessaly that was dedicated to Demeter
• Erysichthon (a Giant -> destructive creature, uncultured ways) demanded that the trees in the grove be
chopped down in order for him to build a banquet hall
• When Demeter realized that her sacred poplar tree was being cut down, she went to him in the form of
her priestess Nicippe and demanded that he stops ravaging her sacred place, but he continues and his
arrogant response aggravated her
• She turned back into a goddess and cursed him with an intractable, insatiable hunger. His parents were
too embarrassed to bring him to feasts so they would always come up with excuses for his absence
o She let the others be bc they were following him out of necessity, subject to his authority
• Since all that angers Demeter also anger Dionysus, he was also cursed with constant thirst for wine
• He then eats everything until he runs out of food and decides to sell his daughter Mystra
• He dies from eating his own flesh
• Mystra lost her virginity to Poseidon and he then gives her the ability to change into various shapes and
escape her father. Poseidon is unable to reverse the curve of Erysichthon
Persephone
• Also called “Kore”, which means girl
• Daughter of Demeter and Zeus
o Shares her mother’s symbology
• Queen of the Dead bc she is married to Hades
o Often enthroned
• Often seen picking flowers
• Roman: Proserpina
The abduction of Persephone
The Rape of Persephone
• Zeus allowed Hades to kidnap Persephone because Zeus knew her mother would not allow him to Marry
her – allegory to arranged marriage
• When she was gathering flowers with the Oceanids, Artemis and Athena, he bursted through a cleft in
the earth and seized her against her will
• Witnesses in the Abduction of Persephone
o Hecate heard her scream
o Helios saw the abduction
• For 9 days, Demeter searched for her daughter and did not eat, drink or bathe – allegory of the strong
bond between mother and daughter
• On the 10th day, Hecate told her she heard her scream but did not see who seized her so they went to
Helios bearing burning torches
o Helios saw everything and told Demeter that Zeus gave Persephone to Hades as his wife and
Hades ravished her away in his chariot
The founding of Eleusis
Demeter withdraws from the gods and travels in disguise to Eleusis
• Characters:
o Celeos, king of Eleusis
o Metaneira
o Demophon
o Deo = Doso (“I will give”)
• While searching for her daughter in Eleusis, Demeter sat down, saddened, veiled and dressed in a
dark robe, next to the Maiden’s Well where Celeos’ daughters came to fetch some water
o The maiden’s well becomes a cult site for Demeter
• They invite her to come to their palace and treat her with great hospitality
In the house of Celeos and Metaneira
• The mother Metaneira got up from her shining high seat and told Demeter to sit but, instead,
Demeter chose to sit on the stool Iambe set for her
o Iambe: one of Celeos’ daughters; iamb: meter of invective poetry
• She sat unsmiling, tasting neither meat nor drink, mourning over the abduction of her daughter
• Iambe made jokes to distract Demeter and made her smile and laugh, leading her to break her fast
and eat
o Jokes are also hurled in the mysteries
• Metaneira gave Demeter a cup of wine but Demeter said it was not permitted for her to drink red
wine so she offered her kykeon that she drinks, which is a drink made from barley, water and mint
 o Wine associated to Dionysos but she is more somber so she drinks kykeon
o Kykeon being a fancy drink, Metaneira assumed that Demeter was nobly born and she
appreciated her modesty and grace
• Metaneira asked Demeter to nurse Demophon, her youngest son
• To thank them for their hospitality, Deo decides to make Demophon immortal by burning his mortal
spirit in fire every night
• However, Metaneira interfered with the process by walking in on her, freaked out when she saw her
son immersed in flames and yelled at Demeter
• Demeter then snatched him out of the fire and set him on the ground but he would not stop crying
• She tells king Celeos that he must build her a temple and an altar and that she will then teach people
of Eleusis her rites so that they can perform them and appease her power – stops the baby from
crying
The restoration of Persephone
The sorrowing Demeter withdraws fertility from the earth
• Demeter’s daughter Persephone was abducted, with Zeus’ consent, by Hades and, in mourning over
her, Demeter refuses to let things grow: she forbids the earth from producing food by hiding the
seed, bringing about the most terrible of years for mortals
• Mortals would have perished from hunger and the gods would have lost their sacrifices so Zeus sent
Iris to ask Demeter to restore agriculture but she does not agree
• Zeus sent all the gods to bring gifts to Demeter and all the honors she wants but none was able to
persuade her so she refused all their appeals and said she will not return to Olympus nor allow the
earth to bear fruit until her daughter is released by Hades
Zeus relents and Persephone is returned
• Since the gods need sacrifice from mortals, Zeus sent Hermes, the slayer of Argos, to Erebos and
persuade Hades to allow Persephone to return to her mother so that she may relent from her anger
• Hermes tells Hades that Demeter has isolated herself in Eleusis and is destroying the mortal
population by hiding the seed under the earth, resulting in the honors of the gods being diminished
• Hades agrees to let Persephone leave but, to make sure she comes back to him, he gives her a
pomegranate seed to eat and she willingly ate it – after taking the seed, she matured into an adult and
she is no longer the child of Demeter (seed is red and enticing)
Persephone reveals that she has eaten the pomegranate seed
• Demeter tells Persephone that if she has tasted food in the underworld, she must spend a 1/3 of the
year (winter months) in Hades and spend 2/3 of the year on Olympus. Persephone told Demeter that
Hades forced her to eat the seed against her will, which was not true
• Since Persephone has eaten food in the underworld, she is forced to spend 1/3 of the year in Hades
and 2/3 of the year in Olympus
• Possible Interpretations
o Etiology for the creation of the seasons: Demeter’s daughter Persephone was abducted, with
Zeus’ consent, by Hades and, in mourning over her, Demeter refuses to let things grow
▪ During the 1/3 of the year she is in Hades, Demeter mourns so crops don’t grow
▪ Could explain the season of growth and the season of fallow
o Social reinforcement: promotes marriage
▪ She willingly took in the seed of Hades, she has matured into a woman (queen of the
underworld)
 ▪ Although their relationship does not start off well, they become a happy husband and
wife as king and queen of the underworld (union)
▪ Rooster: symbol of fertility and Hades
o Etiology: ritual activity to ensure fertility, life after death
▪ Fertility has been linked to the mystery rites
▪ Reason for wanting to be initiated into the mysteries is bc of a promise for a happy
life after death and being able to maintain wits after death
▪ In the Acropolis, Kores holding the pomegranates next to their womb
• The pomegranate is associated with fertility and life after death
• Set up for girls in hope for prosperity and union with good husband to have good
children
• When a girl died before being married, she would be called the bride of Hades
Demeter restores fertility and introduces the mysteries to the Eleusinians
• Demeter sent up the grain from the rich soil and allowed the crops to grow again
• She then reveals the secret rites to the kings of Eleusis and tells them that these mysteries should not
be violated or talked about, as this would upset the gods
• Demeter taught Celeos’ son, Triptolemus, the arts of agriculture that he will teach to all of Greece

The worship of Demeter in the city of Eleusis: Eleusian Mysteries (rites in honor of Demeter)
• The mysteries at Eleusis, celebrated annually in autumn, were among the most celebrated in antiquity
and many from all parts of Greece traveled to take part in them. We know very little about them bc they
were shrouded in secrecy and only those who were initiated into them could participate in the most imp
aspects of the ritual
• Mystery religions, including those at Eleusis, as well as Dionysiac rituals, offered initiates a more
pleasant existence after death
• It was said that, in the house of Hades, those that were initiated into an Eleusian cult would be happy
during death but those that were not initiated were miserable
• These were rites in honor of Demeter and the distances she travelled to find Persephone
• Not allowed to talk about the mysteries or write any of them down
o One person that transgressed the laws of the Eleusinian mysteries was punished by being exiled
• They lasted 9 days
o These mysteries involved fasting and not cleansing themselves, which was similar to what
Demeter went through when searching for her daughter Persephone: while searching for her
daughter, Demeter did not drink, eat or bathe for 9 days. She rested on the ground beside the
Callichoros well 3 times
• Visitors from all over the world were able to take part in the Mysteries
o They were secretly initiated
o They then had to complete lesser mysteries in order to be deemed worthy of witnessing the
greater mysteries
• In order for you to take part of the Eleusian Mysteries, you had to:
o Speak Greek
o Never have committed murder
• They start in Athens where you are purified in the sea (at Pieras), and you make your way to Eleusis
where you will be initiated and go through a ritual process
 • A mystery cult was an elective cult
o It was not part of civic religion
o Secrets were forbidden from being revealed to the public
• The Eleusian mysteries were sponsored by Athens
o Sacred truce was proclaimed for performance (55 days) -> not transgressing the gods
o Open to males and females, free and slave, as long as they spoke Greek and never committed
murder
• Lesser Mysteries: purified initiates and prepared them for Greater mysteries
• Greater Mysteries: held in the spring, and involved sacrifice, prayer, fasting and cleansing by water

Black Demeter near Phigalia in Arcadia

• Mt Elaios contains a cave sacred to Black Demeter
• During her search for Persephone, Poseidon perused her. Demeter turned into a horse in order to avoid
his advances, but he turned into a stallion and mated with the goddess, resulting in the birth of the horse
god
• Having been raped by him despite her disguise, she dressed all in black and retreated into a cave and
secluded herself to mourn and to purify herself. She was consequently depicted with the head of a horse
in this region
• The lack of crop resulted in mortals perishing from hunger so they were not honoring the gods through
sacrifices, which made them unhappy
• Pan happened to be hunting on Mt Elaios, saw Demeter and told Zeus who then sent the Moirai to
Demeter to speak to her, which diminished her grief

Women at the festival of Demeter at Patrai

• Women had to obey strict rules (regarding clothes, makeup) and if a woman broke these rules, the
sanctuary had to be purified bc she had been impious

THE UNDERWORLD
Hades
• His name means “the unseen one”
• Weapon = Helm of Darkness
• Married to Persephone
• Ruler of the realm of the dead (all the souls live under his dominion)
• Bearded mature man holding a staff and standing next to the dog Cerberus or seated next to Persephone
• Roman: Pluto or Dis
o His Roman name means “the wealthy one” and it references him as a god of fertility of the earth
and wealth of the dead

Hades the Place

• Also called Tartarus or Erebus
• Located beyond the WESTERN sea (Odyssey) and/or beneath the earth – a place where no mortal
should be able to reach
• Tartarus and Erebus: a place for the Damned and Titans (earliest depictions)
• Elysium: a place of paradise for heroes and those judged well
 o Contains island of the Blessed
o Paradise on earth
o Ruled over by Cronos
• Rivers: Styx (river of hate), Acheron (river of woe), Lethe (river of forgetfulness), Cocytos (river of
wailing), Phlegethon (river of fire)
o Styx: river that needs to be crossed to enter the underworld
• Hermes
o Psychopompos
o He not only is a guide for travelers on earth but also guides souls to the underworld
• Charon: ferryman
o Ferryman that carries souls across the rivers of Styx and Acheron, very moody and needs to be
weary of the living people that tries to cross the Styx
o Must cross river of Styx to get to the underworld
o Souls can only cross Styx if their bones have received proper burial or if they have suffered for
100 years waiting across Styx
o Depicted on lekythoi (vases)
• Cerberus: the 3-headed guard dog
o Hound of Hades
o 3-headed watchdog that guards the gates of the underworld to prevent souls from leaving
o He is the son of the monster Typhon and Echidna (half snake half woman)
▪ Snakes are depicted on the dog bc of his association with his mother, as well as bc snakes
are associated to the underworld and to fertility (things popping out of the ground)
o Heracles was sent by Erystheus, his task master, to capture Cerberus and bring him back from
the underworld as his twelfth and final labor imposed upon him
• The Judges of the Dead: Minos, Rhadamanthys, Aeacus, (in comedy, Aeacus has less weighty jobs, like
a gatekeeper)
• Visitors: Heracles, Theseus, Orpheus, Aeneas, Odysseus, Er
o These visitors are heroes of antiquity and the common pattern is the conquest of death (visit the
underworld)

Mortals in Tartarus -> reminder not to transgress the laws of the gods
• Tartarus
o Means a “deep place”
o Prison for the Titans
o Place of punishment for a few mortals (sinners having committed extreme acts of transgression):
▪ Tityos
▪ Tantalus
▪ Sisyphus
▪ Ixion
• Tityos (Titan)
o He tried to rape Leto
o But she called her children Artemis and Apollo and they shot him down with their bows
o As a punishment, he was stretched out in Tartarus over 9 acres and was tortured by 2 vultures
who ate out his liver every day

• Tantalos
 o He offered his son Pelops to the gods, by cutting him up and boiling him, and serving him to the
gods at a banquet
o The gods realized this gruesome act he committed and sent him to Tartarus
o He was tantalized and was cursed with eternal deprivation of nourishment
o He was made to stand in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree with low branches, with the fruit
ever eluding his grasp, and the water always receding before he could take a drink
▪ Every time he was hungry, he reached up to get food but the wind would push the
branches away and, every time he was thirsty, he reached down to drink water but the
water would recede
o Etymology: tantalizing -> tormenting or teasing with the sight or promise of something
unobtainable
• Sisyphos
o He tricked Persephone by telling her that his wife did not bury his body properly and convinced
her into allowing him to leave the underworld and promised her he would be back as soon as his
wife buried him properly
o He never returned and, as a consequence, Hermes brings him back to Tartarus and he was
punished by having to always roll a huge boulder up a mountain that would constantly roll back
down
• Ixion
o He tried to rape Hera
o Zeus tricked him by making a cloud in the form of Hera and Ixion tried to have intercourse with
the cloud. His semen fell onto the earth and gave rise to Centaur (half-man half-horse)
o Zeus caught him and sent him to Tartarus where he is bound to a burning solar wheel and spins
around on it for all eternity

Underworld and Afterlife

• Rulers: Hades and Persephone
• Judges: Minos, Rhadamanthys
• Sources: Homer Odyssey 11, Plato’s The Republic, Virgil The Aeneid
• Moral: not to transgress the will of the gods and to give them proper sacrifices

Book 11: The underworld

• Alternative name: Nekyia (“book of the dead”)
• Earliest depiction of the underworld
• Bleak existence, souls are unified (all in 1 underworld) and in a state of stasis
• They believed in necromancy: practice of magic involving communication with the dead
• Land of the Dead is west beyond Ocean
• Ritual sacrifice to the underworld:
o Adds fluids in libation into the pit, as part of the ritual sacrifice
▪ Milk and Honey
o Supplications to the spirits: vowed sacrifice of dark-haired animals, black rams to Tiresias
o Blood of animals: cut the sheep’s throat and the blood flowed into the pit he had dug in order for
the spirits to drink and have the ability to speak to him
o The souls come to where he poured the blood in the pit
• The dead are just shades without memory or voice
• Odysseus goes to the underworld and sees:
o Tiresias
▪ Odysseus goes to the underworld in order to question Tiresias (prophet from Thebes)
regarding how he will get home to Ithaca
▪ He gives information to Odysseus about how to return home safely form the underworld,
as well as how he will die
• Tiresias tells him that getting back home will be difficult, that he must stay away
from the cattle of Helios, that he will lose all his men during the journey, that
there are suitors trying to marry his wife Penelope and that he will die surrounded
by his loved ones
▪ Tiresias has maintained his wits in the afterlife
▪ Talks when is given blood
o Anticlea
▪ She is Odysseus’ mother
▪ Odysseus lets his mother drink the blood after he has obtained the information he needed
from Tiresias
▪ She died bc of her grief for Odysseus’ long absence
▪ She gives him a report on the underworld: she describes it as being a gloomy place that is
very difficult to reach
▪ He tries to hug her 3 times but can’t bc she keeps slipping away, she has no flesh or
blood, so he is saddened– separation between the world of the living and the world of the
dead
▪ Tells that when we die, we don’t have a body anymore, only the spirit remains (non-
material) and that all the desires are kept, but there is no way to act them out bc we are no
longer made of flesh
o Elpenor
▪ He was part of Odysseus’ crew
▪ At one of the parties, he drank too much wine, fell off the roof at Circe’s palace and
broke his neck
▪ His soul cannot rest bc he has not received a proper burial – his crewmates were in a
hurry
▪ He asks Odysseus to bury his body and he agrees
o Achilles
▪ Achilles part is a humanistic passage on Neoptelemus, his son
▪ Achilles was a great warrior in the war between Greece and Troy so Odysseus assumes
that Achilles is famous in the underworld
▪ Achilles used to believe that a short life with fame was more important than a moderate
long life on earth but now he says that being dead is terrible and that he would rather be a
slave to a farmer than rule in the underworld – everyone in the underworld is the “same”
▪ He wants to hear that his son is doing well in life. He is proud when he finds out about
his quiet and long existence, as he realized that it is worth more than a short existence
filled with glory and action
o The Greek heroes who died at Troy, such as Agamemnon, Ajax
o Sights
 ▪ Minos
▪ The Damned

Plato’s Myth of Er in Republic

• Tells us we should live a life of justice and reason and tells us how to improve ourselves
• We have a social contract and should be good to one another
• We need to find a virtuous path and stick to it
• Er is a hero who died on the battlefield and came back to life from the underworld to report back on
what it was like
• He says that people’s actions throughout their life will determine their fate in the afterlife
• 1- Souls are judged on a plane: just, virtuous souls end up in heaven, unjust souls end up underground
o In the underground, unjust souls suffer, for one 1000 years, 10 times the pain they had caused
o In heaven, just and pious souls are rewarded according to the same scale, that is, receiving 10
times as much good as they delivered during they lifetime
o Sinners having committed extreme acts of transgression end up in Tartarus and cannot escape
• 2- After 1000 years, the souls are brought to the spindle of Necessity where the Fates (Moirai) would
turn their spindle and the souls would be allowed to choose their next life
o The choices of the souls for their next life reveals the true nature of the pious and virtuous, as
well as the true nature of those who were falsely-pious and immodest. For example, the impious
character of the souls that came from the heavens is unveiled when they choose to live as tyrants
in their next life
o Through reincarnation, the soul is able to teach itself how to live a just and virtuous life and this
can go on until the lesson is learned, as only through a life lived can one learn such a lesson: how
to improve oneself, constantly towards a soul governed by reason
• 3- Once the souls have chosen their next life, they are brought to drink from the river Lethe (the river of
forgetfulness) to forget about their previous life and then they are born into their new chosen life

Vergil’s Aeneid
• Aeneas descends into the underworld
o Aeneas walks through the underworld with the priestess Sibyl
o He crosses Styx, meets Charon, Palinurus (helmsman of Aeneas’, he needs a proper burial in
order to cross Styx), Cerberus (the priestess gives him cake, which puts him to sleep)
o They reach the Fields of Asphodel: where the souls of those killed young or under false charges
reside
▪ Minos judges these souls
o They reach the Field of Mourning: where the souls of those that died from broken hearts reside
▪ Dito who killed herself bc of her love for Aeneas
▪ Phaedra
▪ This area of the underworld is also called Limbo
o They reach Tartarus and see the river Phlegathon (river of fire) that flows through
▪ Rhadamanthys judges the punishment those souls receive
o They pass the palace of Persephone thanks to the Golden Bough he brings
o They reach the Elysian Fields
▪ He sees his dad, Anchises
 ▪ Anchises says that, after 1000 years of living in paradise, they are forced to drink from
the river Lethe (river of forgetfulness) and be born again
• There are rewards and punishments for justice and injustice
o Actions of an individual throughout his/her life determine whether he/she will be punished or
rewarded in the afterlife
o The evil dead suffer in Tartarus
o The good rejoice in the Elysian Fields/Islands of the Blessed
▪ The elysian fields are a place for certain few heroes
▪ Mortal souls can enter somehow
▪ Souls of those yet to be born await their time

Apollo
• The Far-Darter
• Son of Zeus and Leto
• Twin of Artemis
• Portrayed as a beardless man
• God of reason and intelligence (associated with higher knowledge)
• God of poetry, music, disease (good and bad disease), prophecy
• Symbology: the laurel tree, the laurel wreath, the cithara (lyre), the bow
• He is closely associated with the muses who dance around him as he plays his cithara
o Leader of the muses
• Civilizing force for the Greeks
• He was present at the war between the Lapiths vs. the Centaurs
o West pediment of Temple of Zeus: standing perfectly poised and serene → idealization of gods
o Similar pattern: civilization vs barbarism → Greek vs everybody else
• He learned to prophesy from Pan

The floating island of Delos

• Sources: Homeric Hymn 3, Lucian D. of Sea Gods 9
• Asteria is the sister of Leto
• She turned herself into a quail and flung herself into the water to avoid being raped by Zeus
• She then turned into a floating island
o However, it was neither mainland nor real land

Apollo’s birth Story

• When Zeus’ wife discovered that Leto was pregnant, she banned Leto from giving birth on any island
for vengeance
• Poseidon asks Asteria to become a visible island so Leto can give birth on top of her
• Leto gave birth to Artemis and Apollo, and was accepted by the people, offering them her promises that
her son would always favor this city
• Delos did not want her to give birth on top of her because she was insecure since her land was not
fertile, had rocky soil and not a lot of drinking water
o Leto assures her that he will
• Delos is an important and sacred island for the god Apollo
 • It was also said that Hera kidnapped Eileithyia who is the goddess of childbirth to prevent Leto from
going into labor
o The other gods bribed her with a jewelry and she lets her go
• It was said that Apollo did not suckle on his mother’s breasts, but instead was given nectar immediately
• He was able to speak within the first 5 minutes of being born, and was surrounded by music

Delphi
• Found on the slopes of Mt Parnassos
• It contained temples, treasuries of many cities, stadium, theatre
• Site of the Pythian games (Olympic Games), which has been celebrated every 4 years since 582 BCE
o During these games, there would a be sacred truce upon Greece. People were not allowed to die
or give birth on the island of Delos bc would tarnish the sacred nature of the island
• It is the center of the religious world (omphalos) – where the 2 eagles landed after being released by
Zeus
• The Pythia
• It was a place for festival and competition, not only athletic (physical) but also musical (intellectual)
o Creates a healthy competition, humanistic, constructive competition (Healthy Strife)

Pythia
• She was the highest priestess in the sanctuaries dedicated to Apollo at Delphi
• They would channel prophecies from Apollo himself, while steeped in a dreamlike trance and would
have Priests explain what she said to the people
• There were multiple Pythias rotating during the day fulfilling this job
• Pythias had to be elderly women since they were often kidnapped for their beauty and youth
• Seated on a tripod (cooking utensil) – Hermes threatened to steal the tripod from Apollo
o Seated over vapors → induces trance
• Known to be ambiguous bc she was bribed in the real world
o Ex: Croesus of Lydia: If he goes to war, a great empire will be destroyed. Ambiguity: which
empire? Results: Croesus ends up losing the battle and his empire gets destroyed

Apollo as a conquering hero at Delphi

• Apollo comes to Delphi to look for a place to build his sanctuary
• First thing he does: measure the perimeter of the land → civilizing moment
• Telphousa is a spring who tried to trick Apollo into not building his sanctuary near her
o Too many people will be at her spring and no one will go to his sanctuary
o As a punishment, he buried her waters under stone
• Instead, he went to build his sanctuary on Crisa below Mt Parnassos
o Meets a dragoness that is ravaging the countryside and hurting the people
o Apollo slays the dragon → heroic pattern of heroes

Pytho & Apollo

• Apollo slayed Pytho (dragon) and made it rot in the sun
• This is how he got his Epithet “Pythian” Apollo
Apollo and the Cretan Merchants
• When Apollo built his temple, he appointed sailors as the sanctuary’s first priests
• There was a Cretan ship sailing from Crete and he turned himself into a dolphin and brought the ship
into Crisean Gulf, where they ended coming to
• Parnassus, conducted by Apollo
• The Cretan priests were happy for becoming the first priests so they sing a sacred song to Apollo
• Delphis -> dolphin
• Lepaieon -> sacred song to Apollo
• Different from Dionysus: Apollo doesn’t kill people, he just takes them; different approach
o Reflects on his nature: reason, control and constructive approach
o However, he can be vengeful at times: Against the children of Niobe

The Tragic Loves of Apollo

• Cassandra, Priam’s daughter, tragic figure in the Trojan Saga
o Apollo fell in love with Cassandra, and he told her that if she slept with him he would give her
the gift of prophecy
▪ When he gives her the gift, the refuses to sleep with him
▪ He spits in her mouth
▪ He tells her that people will not believe in her prophecies even though they are correct
(curse)
• Apollo and Hyacinthus
o Hyacinthus was a beautiful young man that Apollo loved
o However, he was also loved by Zephyr, the god of wind
o One day, Apollo and Hyacinthus, were playing a game of discus, Apollo threw the discus and
Hyacinthus tried to run after it to impress the god
o Zephyr who was jealous of his affair with Apollo, blew the discus back to Hyacinthus’ head and
killed him
o Apollo, who was distraught by his death, forbade Hades from taking his soul, and made a red
flower come out of the pool of blood which says Ai! Ai! on the petals
▪ Ai = sound of lament
o This story reflects on the important nature of Apollo: athletic competition
• Daphne
o She would hunt often so she was very close to Artemis’ heart
o Leucippos and Apollo were both in love with her
o Leucippos dressed up as a girl and went hunting with her to get closer to her
o He managed to get closer to her heart and she always wanted him around her
o Apollo was jealous and angry that Leucippos was with her so he put into Daphne’s mind the idea
of bathing with the rest of the girls who had gone to a spring. They all took off their clothes
except Leucippos and they were suspicious so they tore his clothes off and hurled their spears at
him and he disappeared in accordance with the will of the gods
o Daphne runs away when she noticed Apollo running after her. When she was going to be
overtaken in the chase, she asks Zeus if he can remove her from humanity
▪ She then becomes the Daphne/Laurel tree
Thamrys vs The Muses
• Thamrys, the first to have loved other men, is said to have also loved Hyacinthus
• He was an excellent cithara player who bragged about his skills and tried to compete against the Muses
o He had a musical contest with the Muses and agreed that if he were found better, he would get to
sleep with all of them but, if he lost, he would be deprived of whatever they wished
o He lost and as a punishment, they blinded him and took away his skill to play the cithara

Marsyas and Apollo

• Apollo’s punishment for Hubris
• Apollo challenged Marsyas, a satyr who found the flutes that Athena threw away bc they made her look
ugly (puffy cheeks) and said that he plays the flute better than Apollo plays the Cithara, to a musical
contest and they agreed that the winner would do whatever he wanted to the loser
• Apollo flipped his cithara upside down and told Marsyas to do the same thing
o Marsyas was unable to so Apollo won the contest, and suspended Marsyas from a tree, flayed
him (sliced his skin off with a knife while he was still alive) and thus killed him
• Pattern: When someone tries to defeat the gods of music (muses, Apollo) → there are consequences

Niobe and Leto

• Amphion married Niobe
• The hubris of Niobe against Leto: Niobe threw the fact that she had so many children in Leto’s face,
arrogantly taunted Apollo and Artemis (bc Artemis dressed like a man and bc of Apollo’s long dress and
hair) and said that she was better than Leto bc she had more children
• Leto sent Artemis and Apollo to kill her 7 sons and 7 daughters as punishment
o Apollo shot all the sons with arrows while they were hunting in the forest and Artemis killed all
the daughters, except 1, with arrows inside the palace
• Niobe, deprived of her children, turned into a stone from her weeping (etiology)
• Amphion was killed by Apollo’s arrows bc he intended to destroy Apollo’s temple

Hermes
• God of Change, boundaries and Roads
• Trickster – Praised since he was good at being a trickster god
• Messenger and psychopompos (duty given to him by his father)
o He guides souls to the underworld
• Patron of: Messengers, travelers, merchants, thieves, heralds
• Epithet: Hermes Argeiphontes, because he slayed Argos while he was guarding Io
• God of the countryside
• Tied to Herms
• Petasos -> hat to keep the sun and other weather out of his face
• Caduceus -> herald staff with 2 snakes intertwined (connection to the underworld)
• Talaria -> winged sandals that help him move quickly

Inventions
• The lyre – builds it from a turtle
 • Sandals – used to trick Apollo, bc he doesn’t understand what made the steps in the sand
• Sacrifice – kills some cattle
• Fire – to cook the meat and savor the flavor
• Panpipes

Herms
• They are pillars with an erect penis on the anterior surface
• The head of Hermes is found on top of the pillar
• Hermes is also associated with Phallic symbols

Hermes and Apollo

• Stole the cattle of Apollo on the first day he was born and makes them walk backwards → trickster
• Gods associated with civilized countryside
• Also associated with music and poetry
• Creativity outside the city

Homeric Hymn to Hermes

• As a baby, he builds the first lyre from a tortoise-shell
• His first song was a hymn to his mother and father’s love using the lyre he just built
• Hermes also snuck out of his crib, and stole cattle from Apollo
• He hides the cattle and goes back to bed
• Tricks Apollo by saying that he did not steal his cattle. Farts in front of Apollo which makes Apollo
drop Hermes
• Hermes finally gives the cows back to Apollo
o When he starts to play the lyre on Mt. Olympus, all the gods are into the music and found it
beautiful
o Apollo enjoyed it so much that he was willing to trade the 50 cows for the lyre
o As a trade, Apollo makes him the messenger god
o They become best friends
o Myth was most likely sung on Mt Olympus in the Hellenistic period

Pan
• Son of Hermes and Dryops
• Home: Arcadia
• He has the feet and horns of a goat
• He was named Pan bc he had made glad the hearts of them all (Pan = all)
• He is the god of snowy crests, mountain peaks and rocky paths
• He is a satyr
• He is a hunter, and is often chasing after women

Pan and Syrinx

• Pan was eagerly pursing the nymph Syrinx
• As she was running away, she reached a spring where she begged her sisters of the stream to transform
her
 • They then transform her into cattail reeds
• When he realized that he was holding nothing but reeds, he signed and caused the wind to blow in the
reeds
o He was enchanted by the sound and thought it represented the cry of Syrinx
o From the reeds, he made some pipes that he could always have with him

Trickster characters
• Gaia, Rhea, Prometheus, Dionysus, Hermes

References:

https://rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu/rutgers-lib/59277/
https://www.theoi.com/
https://www.studocu.com/ph
https://www.thoughtco.com/the-five-ages-of-man-111776